Professional Development workshops for artists, presented by Creative Capital

We have a limited number of partial travel stipends for Neighbor Island artists who would like to attend. Please email wei@interislandterminal.org for more information.

FINANCIAL LITERACY FOR ARTISTS: a crash course in finance essentials

Saturday May 16, 8:30am - 4:30pm

Designed and led by a working artist with expertise in bookkeeping, budgeting, tax preparation, and financial management, this workshop will raise participants’ level of financial literacy, whatever their prior level of experience. Participants Will Learn:• An overview of basic financial terms and concepts • Financial strategies for the self-employed• Tips for segregating personal and artistic finances, and why it’s important• A primer on individual taxes, including tips for tracking deductible expenses and determining the real cost of making your work• Tips for debt-reduction and start saving• An understanding of the pros and cons of establishing a non-profit corporation

Based on content from Creative Capital’s esteemed Core Weekend, this workshop combines nuts-and-bolts strategies with an empowering approach for integrating strategic planning and fundraising into your creative practice. Key skills participants learn:• A personalized system for using strategic planning to increase your satisfaction in your life and career• Strategies for balancing time and money• How to create and use a business plan and why it is crucial to both personal and professional development• How to prepare for, organize, and pursue different types of fundraising campaigns• Strategies to form long-term donor relationships that support your artistic vision

The Creative Capital Financial Literacy Workshop goes beyond providing information to artists. It empowers artists to advocate for themselves and each other in a mutually beneficial manner. It builds a healthy community. All artists should have access to this workshop.

This was so helpful and encouraging. The wealth of writing prompts, reading materials and conversation with other artists was wonderful. Comprehensively weaving together the importance of time management, fundraising, goal-setting, networking, etc. was helpful. I gained a sense of the big picture on how I can succeed.

— Anne Nelson, Joan Mitchell Center, 2014

About Creative CapitalCreative Capital is a national nonprofit organization dedicated to providing integrated financial and advisory support to artists pursuing adventurous projects in five disciplines: Emerging Fields, Film/Video, Literature, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. Working in long-term partnership with artists, our pioneering approach to support combines funding, counsel and career development services to enable a project’s success and foster sustainable practices for our grantees. Since 1999, we have committed nearly $30 million in financial and advisory support to 419 projects representing 529 artists, and our Professional Development Program has reached over 10,000 artists through workshop and webinars in more than 375 communities across the country and around the world. Creative Capital's core program receives major support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, Lambent Foundation Fund of Tides Foundation, The Theo Westenberger Estate, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, The Nathan Cummings Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, Catharine & Jeffrey Soros, Paige West, Cordish Family Foundation, Sylvia Golden, Rappaport Family Foundation, Stephen Reily & Emily Bingham, and John L. Thomson, in addition to support from more than 150 other institutional and individual donors.

Amy Smith, Financial LiteracyAmy Smith is a founder and Co-Director of Headlong Dance Theater, a collaboratively run Philadelphia-based dance theater company. Headlong has been creating and performing their work since 1993. In addition to Headlong, she has acted in and directed theater productions, performed in cabarets, and choreographed for opera. Amy has 15 years of experience in the for-profit and non-profit worlds doing accounting and financial management work. In 2008, Headlong started the Headlong Performance Institute, a semester training program for dance and theater artists who are college students or recent college graduates. In HPI, Amy teaches a course called “The Life of the Artist”, teaching planning and financial skills. She also teaches financial literacy workshops for professional artists, and does tax preparation for more than 100 artists annually. She chaired the committee that created Dance/USA Philadelphia, our local service organization, and recently served as Board Treasurer for the national service organization for dance, Dance/USA. Her personal mission is to help artists improve their financial literacy so they can reach their financial goals.

Colleen Keegan, Strategic PlanningColleen is a corporate Strategic Planner and Arts Activist. She is a partner in Keegan Fowler Companies, an equity investment and consulting firm specialized in providing strategic planning and business affairs services to companies in the communications and entertainment industries. Previously, Keegan served as the president of Pacific Arts Video Production and Washington Video Services, She also worked as a producer for MTV Networks, WETA and Showtime. Keegan is the co-chair of the endowment committee for The Creative Capital Foundation and the Creator of the Creative Capital Strategic Planning Program for Artists and the Executor of the Theo Westenberger Estate and the administer of the Westenberger grants and fellowships for art and conservation. Keegan is the art business adviser for the TED Fellows program and the Co-Chair of the TED Fellows Arts Committee. She has served on numerous Boards of Directors and advisory boards including the American Refugee Committee, ARTHOME, Artists for Obama, Foundation for Artist Books, The Texas Film Commissions. She lectures on art and new markets at California College of Art, Cal Arts, and the Wharton Business School among others.

Aaron Simonet, Funding Your Work Andrew is Founder and Director of Artists U. From 1993 to 2013, he was a founding co-director and choreographer of Philadelphia's Headlong Dance Theater, along with his collaborators Amy Smith and David Brick. Headlong created collaborative dance theater in Philadelphia, and toured nationally. Andrew’s projects included CELL, a performance journey for one audience member at a time guided by your cell phone, and This Town is a Mystery, performances by four Philadelphia households in their homes, followed by a potluck dinner. Headlong’s work was funded by the New England Foundation for the Arts' National Dance Project, The Creative Capital Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, The Japan Foundation, and The National Endowment for the Arts. With Headlong, Andrew helped found Dance Theater Camp, annual festival of workshops and collaboration for professional artists that is entirely artist-run and free for all participants, and the Headlong Performance Institute, a school for experimental performance with full college credit. Inspired by Creative Capital's Professional Development Program, Andrew founded Artists U in Philadelphia in 2006. Andrew created and ran the Dance Program at the Lawrenceville School, a private high school in New Jersey, from 1995 to 2005. Andrew lives in West Philadelphia with his wife Elizabeth and their sons Jesse Tiger and Nico Wolf.